This research contributes to the discussion regarding the induction process of new Québec elementary and high school principals and vice-principals during the year following their appointment. To understand better this stage in one’s career, we analyzed four of its main components: the nature of newly assigned professional responsibilities, working conditions and context, the degree of support provided by direct supervisors and the school board, and new vice-principals and principals’ motivational characteristics. Simultaneously, this research evaluated individuals’ feeling of empowerment, in order to measure their motivation to carry on their new positions. The main goal was to determine whether the degree of principals and vice-principals’ perceived empowerment could provide information about how they are experiencing their professional induction.
Ten incoming Québec elementary and high school principals and vice-principals were met through a process of semi-structured interviews. Seeing the notion of “professional induction” as a process, rather than a discrete moment in one’s career, each participant was interviewed on three occasions over the course of the school year: a few weeks after the participant took office, halfway through the school year, and at the end of the school year. During each interview, participants answered questions relating to the four components of the professional induction process that were previously mentioned. They were then asked to fill in a written questionnaire designed to measure their own perceived level of empowerment. The questionnaire used was an adaptation by Boudreault (1990) of a tool initially developed by Tymon (1988).
This research seems to confirm the usefulness of the feeling of empowerment as an indicator of how professional induction is unfolding. More precisely, the findings suggest that there exist correlations between the degree of perceived empowerment and certain aspects of the four components of the professional induction process under study. Further studies with larger samples will nevertheless be necessary in order to validate these findings. Firstly, vice-principals with the highest levels of perceived empowerment were those with less variety in files to manage and who were mainly responsible for files that required skills they had already developed during previously-held interim positions or during their participation in committees as teachers. These vice-principals also had fewer responsibilities relating to human resources management, and particularly few responsibilities regarding support staff. Secondly, results regarding the quality of support available to the participants showed a marked tendency. Indeed, participants (both principals and vice-principals) with the highest levels of perceived empowerment were those who reported having received satisfactory support from their direct supervisor. Thirdly, participants with the highest levels of perceived empowerment were those who felt more able to satisfy their professional responsibilities and who questioned less whether they ought to remain in their current positions.
The findings also suggest links between individuals’ perceived empowerment and other aspects of their professional induction process that, while less clear from the present research, deserve further investigation. These other aspects include the school’s organizational climate, the level of discretion given to new vice-principals and principals, and whether vice-principals plan to apply for positions as principals.
Finally, the research has highlighted new principals’ belief that they are experiencing a unique induction process in their career and the differences between the tasks of elementary and high school vice-principals.